Suicide attack kills five in Baghdad

At least three of those killed in the blast, in which the driver of a vehicle detonated explosives outside a ministry forensics office, were police.

After the attacks, ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scene. The ministry building suffered major damage, a Reuters photographer reported.

The bombing came a day after a trio of suicide attacks on well-known Baghdad hotels, two of them hubs for western visitors and journalists in Iraq, killed at least 36 people.

The coordinated bombings, which shattered a seven-week lull in major assaults on government and other supposedly secure targets, fuels tension before Iraq's March 7 parliamentary elections.

Such attacks may present a setback to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is seeking a second term, and other incumbents who hope voters will credit them for the sharp reduction in violence in Iraq over the past two years.